Review: OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB with Indilinx Controller

Today OCZ doesn't only present the 512 Gigabyte version of their new Vertex 4 SSD, there is also a 256 Gigabyte model. According to the specs this one is a little bit slower than its bigger brother but of course it's much cheaper.

Specifications / Delivery

Model

OCZ Vertex 4 256 Gigabyte

Capacity

512 Gigabyte

Memory

Synchronous NAND
Flash

Technology

Intel 29 F16B08CCME3

Throughput

up to
535 MB/s reading, up to 380 MB/s writing
up to 90'000 IOPS write
up to 85'000 IOPS read

Accesstime (read)

< 0.1 ms

Acoustics

no noise

Warranty

5 Years

Behind the scenes

Basically the Vertex 4
from OCZ is a 256 Gigabyte SSD, which uses an Indilinx IDX400MOO-BC controller and synchronous NAND Flash memory from Intel.
These have been manufactured using a 25 nanometer process and the individual
chips have 29 F32B08JCME3 written on them. This indicates that the memory cells
are specified for 5'000 P/E cycles and the memory itself is connected to the
controller via ONFi 2.x standard.

Some readers might have noticed, that OCZ now provides a five year warranty
plan with the Vertex 4. For the Vertex 3 and almost all other drives that are
available at this time warranty is limited to three years. The reason for this
can be found in the so called Ndurance 2.0 Technology, which is an umbrella term
of which for example reduced write amplification is part of. At this point OCZ
emphasizes that they achieved this without the use of any compression algorithms
and therefore there will be no performance drops. Furhtermore there is also
support for Advanced Multi-Level ECC, Adaptive NAND Flash Management, Redundant
NAND Array Technology and 256 bit AES encryption.

Delivery

Included
in delivery you find the SSD itself, a cover, a small manual, an adapter to put
the SSD into a 3.5 inch slot, screws and a sticker. For the Vertex 4 OCZ make
use of their standard box which we know from several other SSDs.